5 things to know about 'Hamilton,' the smash Broadway musical touring the country

Katey Psencik, GateHouse Media

Friday

Feb 8, 2019 at 9:57 AM

Don't throw away your shot to see "Hamilton," the record-setting, Tony-winning musical taking the country by storm as it makes its way around the United States.

The hit musical, which made its off-Broadway debut in New York in February 2015 and moved to Broadway in August of that same year, was created by Tony-winning composer, writer, singer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, known for his work on "In The Heights" and "Bring It On: The Musical."

The musical launched its first national tour in March 2017 and is currently in its second tour, which started in Puerto Rico in January with Miranda returning to star in the lead role as Alexander Hamilton.

Here are five things to know about the musical, now touring the country.

Miranda was inspired to make the musical after reading a book about Alexander Hamilton on vacation.

"I was just browsing the biography section," he told 60 Minutes. "I was thunderstruck. I got to the part where, you know, a hurricane destroys St. Croix where Hamilton is living. And he writes a poem about the carnage and this poem gets him off the island . . . I drew a direct line between Hamilton's writing his way out of his circumstances and the rappers I'd grown up adoring."

The first "performance" of a song from "Hamilton" was at the White House in 2009.

Shortly after his "In the Heights" success, and months after he read the Ron Chernow biography on vacation, the White House invited him to a poetry event to perform a song from the Tony-winning musical, but instead Miranda decided to take a risk and perform something new he'd been working on.

"I'm thrilled the White House called me tonight, because I'm actually working on a hip hop album. It's a concept album about the life of someone I think embodies hip hop: treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton," he announced to the crowd at the White House, including then-President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama in a moment that has been immortalized in a video watched more than 6.5 million times on YouTube.

After the audience chuckled, he said, "You laugh, but it's true. He was born a penniless orphan in St. Croix of illegitimate birth, became George Washington's right-hand man, became treasury secretary, caught beef with every other founding father, and all in the strength of his writing, I think he embodies the word's ability to make a difference."

Then he launched into the song, which he performed as Aaron Burr, the third vice president of the United States and Hamilton's top frenemy (who eventually killed him). That song later became "Alexander Hamilton," the opening number of the musical.

There's no dialogue at all in the entire play. If you've listened to the soundtrack, you've heard the entirety of the story. It's a testament to Miranda's masterful writing and ability to cram a ton of information into a song.

The musical pays tribute to classic R&B artists.

The music itself draws inspiration from Snoop Dogg to The Roots, but there are a few pointed lyrical shoutouts: in "My Shot," Hamilton raps, "I'm only 19, but my mind is old," a lyric from Mobb Deep's Shook Ones Part II and later spells out his name in the same cadence the Notorious B.I.G. spells out "notorious" in "Going Back to Cali."

Miranda even nodded to Ja Rule in "Helpless," singing part of the duet in the rapper's famous growl, and eventually Ja Rule and Ashanti covered the song in the "Hamilton Mixtape" re-imagining of the songs.

It's more than just a musical.

The official cast soundtrack was the first Broadway cast album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard rap chart.

Here are tour dates and locations for Hamilton throughout the country: